The central government has decided to rush additional 4,000 paramilitary personnel to Manipur in its efforts to reopen a national highway which has been blocked for nearly two months by a Naga group. With this, a total of 17,500 central security personnel have been deployed in the state to assist the local administration in maintaining law and order.
"Our priority is now to reopen the National Highway-2 connecting Manipur (to Nagaland). While the other highway (NH-37) has been reopened, we want to reopen NH-2 as early as possible," a senior Home Ministry official said.
The additional deployment comes in the wake of violence following the economic blockade imposed by the United Naga Council (UNC) on November 1. The UNC has blocked NH-2 (Imphal-Dimapur) and NH-37 (Imphal-Jiribam), which serve as lifelines for landlocked Manipur, for 55 days now.
In a stern message, the Centre had on Friday told the Manipur government that it can't escape responsibility for the "humanitarian crisis" arising out of the economic blockade and must work to end it. The Centre also said that nobody will be allowed to take political advantage of the situation.
"The state government has not been able to end the blockade. It must end as soon as possible as law and order are the responsibility of the state government. Nobody will be allowed to take political advantage of the humanitarian crisis," he said.
"Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh is playing politics with the lives of people of the Manipur valley. The central government has extended all support and sent all the required security forces to clear the blockade on NH-2 and NH-53," he said.
"We have been asking the Manipur government to lift the blockade. Law and order is a state subject and so it is the state government's responsibility," he said.
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